Humbly Chosen

Author: Joseph

Date: February 10, 2019

God would go before the Israelites into the land of promise and help them defeat their enemies. Nations would be driven out from the land and Israel was instructed not to intermarry with them nor worship their idols. Both the people of those nations and their idols were to be completely removed from the land. No trace of the nations was to remain and their memory would be blotted out. Israel was not to preserve anything and this was because God wanted to shape them into His own people. He did not want them to be influenced by anything of the nations whose sin was now bringing their judgment.

"...He wanted them to become a people for Him."

Israel was being set apart by God because He chose them to be His own. No other people had that privilege of being chosen by God. Going back to the time of Abraham, God has chosen them simply because He wanted them to become a people for Him. Abraham proved himself faithful and God continued to keep His promise and bless his descendants after him, including Isaac, Jacob, and the twelve tribes. Since their enslavement in Egypt the tribes multiplied and became a small nation. This small nation was brought out from Egypt and suffered from their own rebellion to God as well as enemies that came against them along their journey, but God remained with them and continued to shape them into the people who would serve Him.

Moses recounts God’s reasoning. Israel was not loved or chosen because they were a great people, rather they were the fewest of all peoples (Deuteronomy 7:7). There was nothing grand about Abram (Abraham) and when he was chosen. Abram was only himself and his barren wife, Sarai – two people. He had no children and he and his wife were old in age. Yet, this family of two is the one that God chose as His own.

God chose Abram’s family because He loved them and He thereafter made a covenant with them. God kept the covenant with Abraham’s descendants. The covenant was passed down to those whom loved God and kept His teachings (Deuteronomy 7:7-9). Ishmael did not remain in the covenant because his birth was an act of unfaithfulness, though he was blessed because of Abraham (Genesis 17:18-21). Esau did not remain in the covenant and quickly became foreign even to his own family by his sinful deeds (Genesis 28:8-9; 36:2-8). Even many of the first generation of Israelites out of Egypt did not remain in God’s covenant since they died by their unrepentant sin along the way. The covenant was passed down not to the physical children of Abraham then, but to his spiritual offspring – to those that loved God and were faithful to Him.

Do not wrongly demean yourself into thinking that God can never choose you or has not chosen you. God’s choice is not dependent on who you are, but rather, who He is. When we are able to love Him, it is because He first loved us. Just as Abraham was loved before he loved God, so it is the same with us.

God loves us and then makes a covenant with us. The covenant He makes is not one we make on our own terms, but one that He offers us in love. When we are able to accept His covenant and be faithful to Him, it is because He has graciously initiated the covenant and revealed who He is to us. Just as Abraham was spoken to by God and revealed that God wanted to make a covenant with him, so it is the same with us.

God wanted to separate the people of Israel and make a people for Himself. They could take no credit for being chosen, however, just as it was with those who were chosen since Abraham. God’s choosing was not based on physical lineage, but rather He chose those whom He loved.

Staying in the covenant with Him meant loving Him in return and obeying His voice. This did not require perfection, as no one could achieve this, but it required faithfulness.

Knowing that we are chosen by Him alone and that we must be faithful to Him to remain in the covenant, we should take a humble stance in our position and in all things let God guide us. Do not be like many of the Israelites who left from Egypt. They may have known about God and even realized that His covenant with them has saving power, but they rejected Him and died in their sin.

For those who do not know God, even by reading this article now, God could be speaking to you and calling you to know Him and accept the covenant that He has prepared for you. Do not deny the voice of God when He tries to reach out to you and choose you as His own. This first step of faith is exactly what Abram experienced and his faithfulness changed his life forever.

Bible Passage: Deuteronomy 7:1-9